Mohamed Salah Leaves Liverpool for Trabzonspor
Mohamed Salah has closed the Liverpool chapter of his career and opened a strikingly different one in Turkey, signing a two-year deal with Trabzonspor on a free transfer.
Nine years at Anfield ended not with a farewell tour, but with a mutual agreement to tear up the final year of his contract, originally running to April 2025. A difficult final season – marked by him being dropped and a very public fallout with then-head coach Arne Slot – brought an abrupt halt to one of the great modern Liverpool stories.
He leaves as one of the club’s greatest players. Seven major trophies. Third on Liverpool’s all-time scoring list. A remarkable 257 goals in 442 appearances. Those numbers sit alongside the images: the left-foot curlers, the breakaway finishes, the big-game moments that helped redefine an era on Merseyside.
And now, he is a Trabzonspor player.
A Different Road, Not the Expected One
For a long time, the smart money said Salah’s post-Liverpool future lay in Saudi Arabia. The interest was real, and it was serious. Less than three years ago, Liverpool rejected a £150m bid from Al Ittihad, turning away a sum that would have shattered records for a player already into his thirties.
The noise only grew last season. After he was dropped at Leeds and delivered a bombshell interview, the path to the Saudi Pro League looked almost inevitable. Big money, familiar faces, a league aggressively recruiting ageing superstars. It all seemed to fit.
Instead, he has turned to the Black Sea coast.
Trabzonspor, a club with a fiercely loyal support and a history of unsettling Turkey’s traditional powers, have landed one of the most recognisable forwards of his generation. At 34, Salah is not a fading name clinging to relevance. He is still a player whose decision commands attention across Europe.
Why Trabzonspor Works for Salah
The move, as Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol outlined, makes sense on several levels.
Financially, the package is strong. Reports in Turkey suggest Salah will earn around £15m a year. Turkey’s tax environment is notably favourable for professional footballers, a significant factor for any player in the latter stages of his career.
The competitive landscape matters too. The Turkish Super Lig offers big, emotionally charged fixtures, intense atmospheres, and a football culture that lives on the edge. This is not a gentle wind-down.
There is also Europe. Trabzonspor have a strong chance of playing in the Europa League next season, which keeps Salah on the continental stage. For a player whose career has been defined by Champions League nights and knockout drama, that matters.
As Solhekol put it, the move “ticks a lot of boxes”. Good money. Passionate fans. European football. And, crucially, a leading role.
Carragher: “He’s Better Than That”
Not everyone is convinced.
Jamie Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, questioned the level Salah has chosen at this stage of his career.
“I never believed he was going to go to Saudi, because number one, he’s too good for that,” Carragher said. “I think he can be playing in Serie A. Turkey for me feels a level too low.”
Carragher had pictured a different backdrop: “I was convinced he’d end up at AC Milan or Juventus or somewhere like that; maybe his wages were a problem.”
He drew a comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo’s relentless drive for numbers and status.
“He’s like Ronaldo, he’s so driven, his numbers mean so much to him. I thought, he can still do this in Turkey by the way, but I thought he’d want to play at a real prestigious club.”
Carragher suggested Salah’s wage demands may have scared off some of those elite suitors. In his view, the forward might have had to “curb those demands a little bit to almost get a better club” – the kind of club that plays at San Siro, battles deep into European competitions, and sits at the very top of the game’s hierarchy.
“Turkey just feels like… I just think he’s better than that,” Carragher concluded.
Legacy Intact, Reputation on the Line
Salah’s Liverpool legacy is secure. No argument there. He transformed the club’s attack, dragged them through tight games, and left with a medal collection and a goals record that place him among the very best to wear the shirt.
What comes next is about something different.
At Trabzonspor, he will be the undisputed star, the face of a project, the player expected to lift a club and a league’s global profile. He will walk into stadiums where his name will be chanted as if he has always belonged, and into dressing rooms where his standards will set the tone.
The questions now are sharper. Can he still dominate games week after week? Can he turn Trabzonspor into a force in Europe, not just at home? And when the dust settles on this move, will we look back on it as a clever, calculated late-career choice – or as a step down for a player who could have stayed closer to the game’s summit?
